Posts Tagged ‘Wisconsin’

Trump’s Legal Team Blusters and Blunders On

November 23, 2020

Trump's Legal Team Blusters and Blunders On

From his executive command center at Virginia’s Trump National Golf Club, the lame-duck president continues to fight for a job he’s had no interest in performing, deploying a team of cracked crack-smoking crack lawyers under a hair-dye-sweating Rudy Giuliani to courts across the nation in an attempt to invalidate the will of the people. Recent highlights:

Attempting to earn his $20K-a-day rate, Mr. Giuliani appeared in a federal courtroom for the first time in 30 years. The Republican judge reproved him for ignorance of basic legal terms, likened his claims to “Frankenstein’s Monster … haphazardly stitched together,” and laughed them out of court, writing “This is simply not how the Constitution works.”

In Wisconsin, Trump campaign lawyer Jim Troupis wants the court to invalidate his own vote. He wants to throw out all the early voting ballots, and that’s how he and his wife voted. We don’t don’t know what Mr. Troupis is being paid for this, but the campaign paid $3 million for the two-county recount effort.

On Saturday, Trump lawyer Sidney Powell claimed the presidential election was rigged by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, claimed a voting machine company bribed Georgia’s Republican officials to throw the electon to Biden, and proposed a “Biblical lawsuit” on behalf of Donald Trump in the Peach State. Even Chris “Bridgegate” Christie was embarrassed. Ms. Powell was booted from the Trump legal team — not for being nuts, but for undermining Georgia GOP officials before the state’s crucial senate runoff elections.

And, ultimately, it may be Republican anxiety over those Georgia senate runoffs, which threaten the GOP stranglehold on congress, that will force Mr. Trump to accept his defeat. Big party donors are telling the Republican leadship they won’t contribute a dime to the Georgia campaigns if the president doesn’t concede, and spend even more time on his golf courses.

Updates:

“Trump’s Pennsylvania Appeal Rejected in Scathing Decision by His Own Appointee,” Tracy Connor, Daily Beast

“Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit against mail ballots with prejudice in another defeat for Trump,” Elise Viebeck, Washington Post

Related:

“Donor sues pro-Trump group over failure to prove voter fraud: ‘Empty promises,'” Jordan Williams, The Hill

“Joe Biden gains votes in Wisconsin county after Trump-ordered recount,” The Guardian

“20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election,” Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Amy Gardner, Washington Post

More Updates:

“How Is Trump’s Lawyer Jenna Ellis ‘Elite Strike Force’ Material?” Jeremy W. Peters and Alan Feuer, New York Times

“Pro-Trump legal crusade peppered with bizarre blunders,” Zach Montellaro and Kyle Cheney, Politico

“Delusional Trump Says He’ll Waste 125 Of His Energy Into Already Low Energy Election Lawsuits,” Summer Concepcion, Talking Points Memo

“Judges turn back claims by Trump and his allies in six states as the president’s legal effort founders,” Elise Viebeck, Emma Brown and Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post

“Trump thought courts were key to winning. Judges disagreed.” Colleen Long and Ed White, Associated Press

“Supreme Court Rejects Texas Suit Seeking to Subvert Election,” Adam Liptak, New York Times

“Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices Tell Trump Lawyer His Election Suit ‘Smacks of Racism,’” Adam Klasfeld, Law & Crime

“‘The last wall’: How dozens of judges across the political spectrum rejected Trump’s efforts to overturn the election,” Rosalind S. Helderman and Elise Viebeck, Washington Post

“Trump’s Legal Arguments Are Getting More Delusional. Support From Republicans Just Keeps Growing,” Paul McLeod, BuzzFeed News

“Trump Orders Space Force to Discover Other Planets with Courts,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

Even More Updates:

“Trump Lost 59 Election Cases Before Electoral College Vote (and Counting),” Zoe Tillman, BuzzFeed News

“Kilmeade Asks Stephen Miller If Trump’s Failing Lawsuits Mean He Has ‘Worst Legal Team,’” Summer Concepcion, TalkingPointsMemo

“Judge Briskly Tosses Out GOP Georgia Ballot Challenge Hours After It Was Lodged,” Kate Riga, TalkingPointsMemo

“Conspiracy-theorist lawyer Sidney Powell spotted again at White House,” Martin Pengelly, The Guardian

“Trump wants Supreme Court to overturn Pa. election results,” Jill Colvin and Marc Levy, Associated Press

Wait! Wait! Additional Updates:

“Sidney Powell’s Hidden ‘Kraken’ Witness Is a Pro-Trump Podcaster Once Sued for Fraud,” Blake Montgomery, Daily Beast

“Federal court rejects Trump’s Wisconsin election challenge,” Daniel Uria, UPI

“Dominion Voting Systems Employee Sues Trump Campaign And Allies, Alleging Defamation,” Bente Birkeland, Colorado Public Radio

Even More Horrible Updates:

“Rep. Gohmert Calls for Street Violence as Another Legal Loss Sends MAGA World Spiraling,” Justin Rohrlich, Daily Beast

“Louie Gohmert Suggests People ‘Go to the Streets’ and Be ‘Violent’ After Judge Throws Out Baseless Election Suit,” Peter Wade, Rolling Stone

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Wisconsin: Voter Suppression by Germ Warfare

April 13, 2020

Wisconsin: Voter Suppression by Germ Warfare

Wisconsin’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order went into effect on March 25th, and the governor tried to delay in-person voting until June, but the state’s Republican-majority legislature, in a session attended by only 2 members, convened for 17 seconds to force voting in person on April 7th, pandemic be damned. The Republican-dominated State Supreme Court voted to overturn the governor’s delay order, and a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision backed that up.

Thus, on April 7th, the GOP compelled a death march of Wisconsin voters to polling places in the middle of the US coronavirus outbreak. Poll workers, largely elderly and at risk of COVID-19, stayed away, reducing the number of polling places and causing hours-long lines of masked voters in the few that were open. Many voters who requested absentee ballots did not receive them before election day.

Why this unseemly, unhealthy haste? It is a truth universally acknowledged that Republicans must be in want of low voter turnout to continue their gerrymandered stranglehold on the Nation’s body politic. If a pandemic can help them, they’re okay with that. Wisconsin votes will be tallied today, April 13th. Perhaps “I Voted” stickers will get civic-minded victims priority in the state’s ICUs.

Due to the pandemic, many states are transitioning to vote-by-mail systems. Republicans are against it, including President Trump, who recently voted by mail.

More:

“Wisconsin: the state where American democracy went to die,” Sam Levine, The Guardian

“The Wisconsin GOP Is Risking Voters’ Lives to Protect Its Minority Rule,” Eric Levitz, New York Magazine

“Wisconsin tracking potential spread of coronavirus from Tuesday’s election,” J. Edward Moreno, The Hill

“Wisconsin health officials step up efforts to track coronavirus exposure from primary election,” Quint Forgey, Politico

“Gerrymandering Meets the Coronavirus in Wisconsin,” Michael Li, Brennan Center

“How Wisconsin’s election disenfranchised voters,” Vox

Related:

“Trump says Republicans would ‘never’ be elected again if it was easier to vote,” Sam Levine, The Guardian

“Trump Wants 50 Wisconsins on Election Day,” Jamelle Bouie, New York Times

“Republicans Could Use the Coronavirus to Suppress Votes Across the Country. This Week We Got a Preview,” Carol Anderson, Time

Update:

“Thousands of Wisconsin ballots could be thrown out because they don’t have a postmark,” Ian Millhiser, Vox

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Lawyer Locked Up For Rolling His Eyes At Judge

November 2, 2018

Lawyer Locked Up For Rolling His Eyes At Judge

Circuit Judge David Borowski of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin ordered the detention of Public Defender Puck Tsai for a perceived lack of respect and decorum. “Rolling your eyes, throwing your hands in the air, acting like I’m some kind of idiot gets you locked up for contempt,” Judge Borowski told Mr. Tsai before the defense attorney was handcuffed and hauled off to the slammer with a belly chain.

“According to the Journal Sentinel,” notes the ABA Journal,  “it’s not the first time Borowski ordered contempt detentions. He previously did so for parties in probate cases and for a lawyer in a high-profile criminal case.”

More:

“Judge Locks Up Defense Attorney Who Dared To Roll His Eyes At Him,” Kathryn Rubino, Above the Law

“Defense lawyers group calls for Milwaukee County judge to admit error, apologize or resign over jailed lawyer,” Bruce Vielmetti, Milwaukee Journal

Bonus section: 

“Eye Rolling,” Wikipedia

“Don’t Roll Your Bloodshot Eyes at Me,” written by Hank Penny, recorded by Wynonie Harris, 1951.

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Bachmann Eyes Senate Run

January 4, 2018

Bachmann Eyes Senate Run

Former Swiss citizen and ex-Congresscreature Michele Bachmann has her crazy eyes on the Wisconsin senate seat recently vacated by Al Franken. Mrs. Bachmann previously represented the 6th District of Minnesota, the Planet Mars, the Tea Party Caucus, and the voice of the Lord, and considered running for president in 2016. Her 2012 presidential bid triggered FEC and Congressional Ethics inquiries.

More:

“Michele Bachmann tells televangelist she might run for Al Franken’s Senate seat,” Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Washington Post

“Former congresswoman Michele Bachmann eyes Senate run for Al Franken’s seat,” Jessica Estepa, USA Today

Related:

“Return To Bachmann-ia: Here’s What Michele Bachmann Has Been Up To,” Matt Shuham, TPM DC

Update:

“Bachmann won’t run for Franken’s Senate seat because she did not hear a ‘call from God,'” Avery Anapol, The Hill

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Equal-Opportunity Fascist Steps Down

September 4, 2017

Equal-Opportunity Fascist Steps Down

Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke, tough-guy lawman, plagiarist, souvenir pin collector, Trump fan, and alleged torturer, resigned from his post without explanation last Thursday. He had one year left in his 4th elected term.

Maybe he’ll be get a job in the Trump Administration; maybe he’ll be indicted along with the jailers he supervised. He won’t run for the senate in Wisconsin, but maybe he’ll move to Arizona and try to take over where elderly thug Sheriff Joe Arpaio left off.

More:

“Fascist Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke Resigns,” Eric Levitz, New York Magazine

Related:

“The Troubling Sheriffs’ Movement That Joe Arpaio Supports,” Robert L. Tsai, Politico

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Who Moved My Cheese?

July 12, 2016

food cheese wedge

Thieves stole 20,000 pounds of cheese from a truck parked at a business in Oak Creek Wisconsin last week.

“Police say the semi driver was transporting the load from Green Bay to the New York City area and unhitched the trailer to run an errand. When he returned, the trailer and $46,000 worth of cheese was gone.

It’s not the first such heist of the legacy commodity in a state where sports fans like to wear foam wedges on their heads. A semitrailer carrying $70,000 worth of cheese was stolen from Germantown, another Milwaukee suburb, in January.”

— “Thieves at large, with 20,000 pounds of cheese, in Wisconsin,” Chicago Tribune

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Scott Walker: Wall Off the Border with Canada

September 1, 2015

Scott: Wall Off the Border With Canada

On Sunday college dropout Scott Walker, Wisconsin governor and low-ranking GOP presidential candidate, told Chuck Todd that building a wall along the Canadian border is “a legitimate issue.” It certainly would be an issue to build a wall along the world’s longest international border, since the 5,525-mile-long structure would cost unknown trillions of dollars.

“Of course we would vigorously oppose any thickening of the border,” said Canadian Defence Minister Jason Kenny. Reaction from the Great White North has been fairly muted, since Canada has a big election of its own on October 19th.

(more…)

Scott Walker Worships Ronald Reagan

March 6, 2015

Scott Walker Worships Ronald Reagan

Scott Walker worships Ronald Reagan, which must be disconcerting to Mr. Walker’s minister father. Anyway, each year, on President Reagan’s birthday, Governor Walker eats Mr. Reagan’s favorite foodsmacaroni and cheese casserole, and red, white, and blue Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Scott Walker even got married on Ronald Reagan’s birthday. This surely makes for a very romantic anniversary dinner.

Governor Walker thinks that the most important foreign policy move of his lifetime was Reagan busting the air traffic controllers’ union. What? Hey, maybe he was thinking about all those international flights.

More: 

“Scott Walker loves Ronald Reagan more than seems humanly possible,” Andrew Prokop, Vox

“Scott Walker: Records show Soviets treated Ronald Reagan more seriously after he fired controllers,” Tom Kertscher, Politifact

“Scott Walker is a giant fraud: Reagan worship, bizarre religious beliefs, and the real story of his long crusade for 2016,” Jud Lounsbury, Salon

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Marriage Equality in Virginia. And 10 Other States.

October 7, 2014

Marriage Equality in Virginia. And 10 Other States.

The Supreme Court declined to reconsider federal appeals court rulings overturning bans on gay marriage in five states. Same-sex marriage is now legal in Virginia, Utah, Oklahoma, Indiana and Wisconsin. Six other states — Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming — bound by the same appellate rulings had stayed same-sex marriage pending the Supreme Court’s review, and should get with the program shortly. That means marriage equality is the law in 30 states and the District of Columbia.

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Santorum Tries to Bowl Over Voters

April 3, 2012

Santorum Tries to Bowl Over Voters

How can you pretend to be Joe Lunchbox when you’re a highly-paid K Street lobbyist, a lawyer with an MBA and a big house in the DC suburbs? Go bowling. That’s what Rick Santorum did in Wisconsin last week. Chris Moody says that’s Rick Santorum’s idea of Spring Break. The GOP primary candidate even challenged front runner Mitt Romney to a bowl-off.

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